Sunday, November 25, 2007

Rewarding Dedication

Gladiator. High Warlord. Grand Marshal. These are titles that are or were once bestowed upon those who exhibit the greatest amount of dedication to the craft that is WoW. Very few have achieved these statuses, and these titles are exceptionally rare as a result, which begs the question:

IMO, there has yet to be a time in WoW PvP history that has been relatively exploit-free. The old rank system was dominated by AV AFKs, people sharing accounts, etc--and now in the era of Arenas almost every battlegroup win-trading teams are vaulting to the top of the ranks. When Blizzard finally cleans up PvP and makes it relatively exploit free, then I'd be in favour of more recognition for the people who achieve the highest titles.

That's a good point, Gorg. But how do you keep from rewarding the exploiters without passively punishing those that did it for real?

I hated having to compete with the AV AFKers while working towards Rank 14. It became less a matter of out-playing others with skill than it did out-logging them with time, and it was b.s. to say the least.

Through three and a half weeks at Rank 13, I did it all on my own. Near the end, I needed to set an egg timer on my nightstand for 2 mins and 45 seconds in case I fell asleep and was logged due to inactivity. I couldn't afford having that 15-min debuff, and so I remained awake, ignoring healthful sleep for as long as I could or until my competitors logged out themselves (which often was the case).

Having to out-honor toons being played by 2-4 people was a horrible existence. But like so few before me and even fewer later, it was done legitimately. To keep from giving us thoughtful acknowledgment because others took advantage of the system is placing the effective blame on people who should be rewarded, not punished.